Fort San Carlos de Barrancas

A National Historic Landmark, Batteria de San Antonio sits on a bluff overlooking the entrance to Pensacola Bay. The natural advantages of this location have inspired engineers of three nations to build forts. The British built the Royal Navy Redoubt here in 1763 of earth and logs. The Spanish built two forts here around 1797. Bateria de San Antonio was a masonry water battery at the foot of the bluff. Above it was the earth and log Fort San Carlos de Barrancas. American engineers remodeled the water battery in 1838 and built a masonry fort on the bluff between 1839 and 1844, connected by a tunnel to the water battery.